As device and features size continue to shrink in the semiconductor industry, and also as 3D device structures (e.g., Intel's Tri-Gate transistor architecture) become more prevalent in integrated circuit (IC) design, the capability of depositing thin conformal films (films of material having a uniform thickness relative to the shape of the underlying structure, even if non-planar) will continue to gain importance. Atomic layer deposition (ALD) is a film forming technique which is well-suited to the deposition of conformal films due to the fact that a single cycle of ALD only deposits a single thin layer of material, the thickness being limited by the amount of one or more film precursor reactants which may adsorb onto the substrate surface (i.e., forming an adsorption-limited layer) prior to the film-forming chemical reaction itself. Multiple “ALD cycles” may then be used to build up a film of the desired thickness, and since each layer is thin and conformal, the resulting film substantially conforms to the shape of the underlying device structure. Likewise, atomic layer etch (ALE) is an adsorption-mediated etch technique analogous to ALD which, because it involves the reacting of an adsorption-limited layer of etchant, may be used to controllably and selectively etch silicon substrates with a high level of precision, although, like ALD, multiple “ALE cycles” are typically required to accomplish the desired amount of substrate etching. Because both ALD and ALE are oftentimes plasma-activated processes, controlling the characteristics of the plasma—used to activate the film-forming reaction in ALD or the etch reaction in ALE—over the course of many cycles may be of considerable importance.